DataTask

What is it (Business Intelligence)

Business intelligence (BI) is a broad category of application programs and technologies for gathering,storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. BI applications support the activities of decision support, query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining. BI includes a set of concepts and methods to improve business decision making by using fact-based support systems.

 

Business intelligence (BI) is about creating value for our organizations based on data or, more precisely, facts. While it seems like another buzzword to describe what successful entrepreneurs have been doing for years, if not centuries, that is, using business common sense. From a modern business-value perspective,corporations use BI to enhance decision-making capabilities for managerial processes (e.g., planning,
budgeting, controlling, assessing, measuring, and monitoring) and to ensure critical information is exploited in a timely manner. And computer systems are the tools that help us do that better, faster, and with more reliability.

 

Defining BI
Business Intelligence is the art of gaining a business advantage from data by answering fundamental questions, such as how various customers rank, how business is doing now and if continued the current path, what clinical trials should be continued and which should stop having money dumped into! With a strong BI, companies can support decisions with more than just a gut feeling. Creating a fact-based “decisioning” framework via a strong computer system provides confidence in any decisions made.

 

Business intelligence is not necessarily about tools and technologies; rather it is a strategy of combining data from various sources with methodologies that make those facts solidify in a cohesive manner.The data part of this strategy is data warehousing  Once the data is sourced, scrubbed,enriched, conformed, and finally housed in “access-ready” formats BI tools can make the data sing and dance.

 

Traditional BI makes use of past data points (what you know about the data from a historical perspective)and displays it for the end user to make important inferences. The historical reporting takes advantage of the dimensionality in the data to “slice and dice” by reporting facts along any number of dimensions.Early reporting tools allowed programmers to define exactly what they wanted to present in varying levels of
granularity and aggregation. In the 1980’s a plethora of OLAP style data structures emerged, which included MOLAP, ROLAP and Hybrid-ROLAP. All of which provided the ability to drill in, around and through to make sense of the data presented.
While OLAP is certainly not dead, highly structured interfaces to the data came out of an organization’s executive branch interested in the details. In other words, taking data from “green bar” and simply transferring it to the “browser” was not enough.
Management needed to synthesize the data into meaningful bits of information. “Tell me what’s wrong.Highlight the facts for me,” was the driving force behind the dashboard and scorecards in today’s electronic toolbox.
Reporting on the past can only show what has happened, not what the future may bring. Past information must be combined with some real-time information and then layered with analytics in order to have true foreknowledge. This is where data mining, forecasting and other predictive analytics play an important role.This also turns out to be a major differentiator for SAS relative to its competitors.

 

 

SAS and BI
Having just celebrated 30 years of providing software for decision support, it is safe to say SAS has always done BI. From the early days of helping agricultural universities share statistical algorithms to supporting Fortune 100 companies today, SAS solutions take data and make sense of the patterns and provide flexibility and power in how to display and share information.
In SAS software, Business Intelligence includes:
• A set of client applications designed for a specific type of business or analyst
• SAS server processes designed to provide specific types of services for the client applications
• A centralized metadata management facility

Future of BI—Business Intelligence 2.0

As it relates to
modern computing, the concepts behind BI have been in use for decades. One of the paradigm shifts noted in recent years is moving beyond simple reporting to proactive analysis of the data and providing prescriptive recommendations on how to interpret the data. This, of course, relies on the fact that corporations can successfully move from caring about what happened in the past to a desire to not only know
what’s wrong but what is likely to get worse if nothing is done. That is where the power of advanced analytics plays such a powerful role. What lies ahead if the leap can be made that tools like reporting, querying, OLAP, dashboards, scorecards and portals can be successfully used to help make sense of the world around us?
Wikipedia defines BI like this:
… a business management term which refers to applications and technologies… used to gather, provide access to, and analyze data and information about…company operations. Businessintelligence systems… help companies have a more comprehensive knowledge of the factorsaffecting their business, such as metrics on sales, production, [and] internal operations…[BI systems] can help companies… make better business decisions. (Source: Wikipedia, 2007)

These days, speed and security is the name of the game.

Website visitors abandon sites after just a second or two of delay, and database hacks have become commonplace. Just look at the news to see the latest scandal laid bare by hackers who gained access to sensitive information due to poorly maintained WordPress or Drupal installs.

That’s why developers, agencies and producers of web content are turning to static website generators. With modern browsers, sites built with JavaScript, APIs and Markup offer the ability to serve highly dynamic content without the shackles of the standard, painfully slow (and expensive) backend database and a server building a site each time a visitor makes a request. Flat files can be served from CDNs around the world, increasing both speed and uptime, and managing static sites with version control systems like Git means the process of creating and updating sites is highly efficient.

Of course, if you are looking to make the switch, the myriad choices can seem daunting. That’s why we’re here. We’ll take a look at a lineup of the most popular static website generators and what they’re best suited for.

To decide what to cover, we are using StaticGen.com, a leaderboard of the top open-source static site generators (full disclosure: Netlify runs staticgen.com). We’re letting the community decide by covering the tools with the greatest number of stars on GitHub.

Before we start, you’ll probably notice that ReactJS isn’t on this list. You can’t talk about front end development in 2016 without talking about React, but React is more rightly a set of tools that can be used for many things, including static site and single page app development. React has been used to create some of the SSBs on this list, and will undoubtedly continue to have a hand in the future of the modern web, but for the purposes of this article, we’re looking at tools that can build entire sites and apps, not just components.

1. Jekyll

Jekyll is far and away the most popular static site generator. That’s no surprise, considering it underpins GitHub Pages and was created by GitHub co-founder Tom Preston-Werner.

Jekyll is built with Ruby, and is most often used for blogs and personal projects, due to its close integration with GitHub. Jekyll takes a directory filled with text files, renders that content with Markdown and Liquid templates, and generates a publish-ready static website. Its large community and wide array of plugins makes it a great jumping off place for bloggers coming from the world of WordPress and Drupal, making it easy to import content from those formats and more.

jekyllrb.com

2. Hexo

Hexo is a build tool created with nodeJS, which allows for super speedy rendering, even with extremely large sites. Hexo focuses on being a blog framework that is highly extensible, with full support for Octopress plugins out of the box, and many Jekyll plugins with a minimum of tweaking.

hexo.io

3. Hugo

Hugo is a consistently namechecked static site generator built around Google’s Go programming language. It is optimized for speed (Hugo sites can be built in milliseconds) and easy to use. With no dependencies, Hugo is easy to install and update…all you need is the binary.

Hugo takes a directory with content and templates and renders them into a full html website. It’s a great choice for blogs and documentation. Content can be written in Markdown, oganized however you want with any URL structure, and metadata can be definied in YAML, TOML or JSON. All this is done with almost no configuration, meaning with Hugo, you can just get straight to work.

gohugo.io

4. Octopress

Octopress began its life as a modified version of Jekyll, but it has taken on a life and a community of its own. Octopress’ theme is written in Semantic HTML5 and is easy to read on mobile devices. Users of Jekyll will find themselves right at home, as many Octopress plugins can be used with minimal modification, and its out of the box framework means users can get up and running in seconds.

Octopress self-identifies as a blogging framework for hackers. It allows users to easily embed code into their posts from gists, jsFiddle or their own file systems, all with Solarized styling. It features built-in third-party integration, supporting Twitter, Pinboard, Google Analytics, Disqus comments and more.

octopress.org

 

5. Pelican

Pelican is a static site generator written in Python. Content can be written in Markdown or reStructuredText formats, and can be published in multiple languages.

Jinja2 templates allow users to customize the them, and Pelican supports code syntax highlighting. Pelican can also support Atom and RSS feeds, integrates social media accounts, external commenting tools like Disqus and Google Analytics. Content that lives elsewhere can be imported from WordPress, Dotclear or RSS feeds.

getpelican.com

6. Brunch

Brunch is an ultra-fast HTML5 assembler and build pipeline. Brunch compiles scripts, templates and style sheets, lints them, wraps them in Common.js or AMD modules, and concatenates the result.

Brunch uses skeletons to get users up and running. Brunch is better suited for users planning on building something closer to an app on the app/blog static site spectrum.

Brunch is actually better compared to Grunt or Gulp than to a blogging framework like Jekyll or Hugo. It doesn’t care about programming languages, frameworks or libraries. It just builds stuff.

brunch.io

7. Middleman

Middleman was built as a framework for advanced marketing and documentation websites, instead of a static blogging engine. It’s grown to become one of the most widely used static build tools for enterprise sites, with companies like MailChimp, Sequoia Capital and Vox Media creating their sites in Middleman.

Middleman is a command-line tool that uses Ruby and Ruby Gems to build web applications with CoffeeScript, asset management solutions like Sprockets, and uses ERB and HAML for dynamic pages and simplified HTML syntax. Additionally, Middleman’s powerful API allows extension authors to hook in to the toolchain at different points.

middlemanapp.com

8. Metalsmith

With Metalsmith, the sky’s the limit. That’s because Metalsmith is extremely simple – it’s a collection of user-defined plugins. Because of that, Metalsmith can build just about anything, from blogs to documentation to webapps and just about anything in between.

It’s worth noting that Metalsmith’s structure means that users should have a fairly high level of technical proficiency before trying to tackle a project. Beginners would be better served by one of the other tools on this list. But if you want something infinitely flexible, Metalsmith could be the tool of choice for you.

metalsmith.io

9. Harp

Harp is a static web server that also serves Jade, Markdown, EJS, Less, Stylus, Sass, and CoffeeScript as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript without any configuration. Harp allows you to reuse partials and common elements, so that you can preserve consistency across design and layouts. It compiles assets on an as-needed basis, so changes can be displayed with just a simple save and refresh.

harpjs.com/

10. Exposé

Exposé is quite a bit different than the other offerings on this list. It’s actually just a Bash script that turns images and videos into beautiful photoessays. It’s best experienced, rather than explained, so do yourself a favor and look at the personal blogs of Expose’s creator, located at jack.ventures and jack.works.

github.com/Jack000/Expose

Honorable Mentions:

There’s always a few favorites that get left out of any top ten list, and this one is no different. We decided to add a few of our personal favorites to the list, just because we like ‘em.

Gatsby

Gatsby takes Markdown and other static data sources and turns them into dynamic blogs and websites using ReactJS. By supporting the component-driven development model of React, Gatsby is able to re-use components across a site, adding consistency and speed. Blogs developed in Gatsby function as a single-page app, with JS bundles preloaded, so page transitions are instantaneous.

github.com/gatsbyjs

Roots

Roots is a static site compiler built in NodeJS, that generates static HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. A product of digital agency Carrot Creative, Roots is streamlined for use by freelancers and agencies to make highly variable builds quicker and easier. Roots comes in the form of a static site build tool by default, but also includes templates and plugins for Express and Rails. Roots comes with out of the box support for Jade, CoffeeScript and Stylus, with an easily extensible asset pipeline.

roots.cx

GitBook

GitBook is quite a bit different than your standard static web tool, but follows one of the cardinal rules of the static site toolchain: Do one thing and do it well. In the case of GitBook, that one thing is eBooks.

With GitBook, you can write your book in Markdown or AsciiDoc format, and publish by pushing to GitHub. If you aren’t comfortable working in the command line, you also have the option of using a web UI or a desktop editor. And once you are done, you can output your book as a website or an eBook in pdf, epub or mobi format.

gitbook.com

Cactus

Cactus sets itself apart from the crowd by being a little more beginner-friendly than some of the other options listed above, due to the existence of the Cactus Mac app. The application allows for simple setup of frameworks for blogs, portfolios and profiles, with built in deploy for Amazon S3. Underpinning all that is a modern build tool that runs on Python and uses Django’s templating language.

github.com/koenbok/Cactus/

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Once you’ve chosen a static site generator, you can use Netlify to host and deploy your static site or app. Although there are many static site hosting services, only Netlify gives you built-in performance, security, and flexibility. And of course, it supports every generator listed here and many more.

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What you need to Know

Static site generators seem to have been becoming more and more popular recently, but they’re not one of those ephemeral novelty things that grow in popularity as quickly as they fall into oblivion shortly after. For over a decade, many different projects – 394 of them, to be more precise – have been maintained by lots of varied people in the community and built with a diverse range of programming languages and technologies.

I often read on articles about this subject that “static sites are not for everyone”, partially due to the lack of a UI to manage content and to the sometimes unfriendly installation process. But actually I think they can be for everyone, just not for everything.

The aim of this article is to help people of all skill levels understand exactly what static site generators are, acknowledge their advantages, and understand if their limitations are a deal-breaker or if, on the contrary, they can be overcome. With that, you’ll hopefully be able to make an informed decision on whether or not a static site can be the solution for your next project.

The concepts described throughout the article are valid for all static site generators, since they all share the same philosophy, although I’ll have Jekyll in mind when I write purely because that’s the one I use and have most experience with. It’s quite a mature product, has a huge community and the big bonus of being natively supported by GitHub pages. However, alternatives such as Docpad, Hugo and Wintersmith are also widely used and definitely worth investigating.

How dynamic sites work
Try to imagine for a second that the only way for people to know what’s happening in the world is to go to the nearby news kiosk and ask to read the latest news. Yes, I know it’s silly but it will all make sense in a bit, please bear with me.

The attendant has no way to know what the latest news are, so he passes the request on to a back room full of telephone operators — picture a big telephone switchboard room in the 1950s. When an operator becomes available, they will take the request and phone a long list of news agencies, ask for the latest news and then write the results as bullet points on a piece of paper.

The operator will then pass his rough notes on to a scribbler who will write the final copy to a nice sheet of paper, arrange them in a certain layout and add a few bits and pieces such as the kiosk branding and contact information. Finally, the attendant takes the finished paper and serves it to the happy customer. The entire process will then be repeated for every person that arrives at the kiosk.

That is essentially how a dynamic website works. When a visitor gets to a website (the kiosk) expecting the latest content (the news), a server-side script (the operators) will query one or multiple databases (news agencies) to get the content, pass the results to a templating engine (the scribble) who will format and arrange everything properly and generate an HTML file (the finished newspaper) for the user to consume.

How static sites work
The proposition of a static site is to shift the heavy load from the moment visitors request the content to the moment content actually changes. Going back to our news kiosk metaphor, think of a scenario where it’s the news agencies who call the kiosk whenever something newsworthy happens.

The kiosk operators and scribbles will then compile, format and style the stories and produce a finished newspaper right away, even though nobody ordered one yet. They will print out a huge number of copies (infinite, actually) and pile them up by the store front.

When customers arrive, there’s no need to wait for an operator to become available, place the phone call, pass the results to the scribble and wait for the final product. The newspaper is already there, waiting in a pile, so the customer can be served instantly.

And that is how static site generators work. They take the content, typically stored in flat files rather than databases, apply it against layouts or templates and generate a structure of purely static HTML files that are ready to be delivered to the users.

Advantages of static
1) Speed
Perhaps the most immediately noticeable characteristic of a static site is how fast it is. As mentioned above, there are no database queries to run, no templating and no processing whatsoever on every request.

Web servers are really good at delivering static pages quickly, and the entire site consists of static HTML files that are sitting on the server, waiting to be served, so a request is served back to the user pretty much instantly.

2) Version control for content
You can’t even imagine working on a project without version control anymore, can you? Having a repository where people can collaboratively work on files, control exactly who does what and rollback changes when something goes wrong is essential in any software project, no matter how small.

But what about the content? That’s the keystone of any site and yet it usually sits in a database somewhere else, completely separated from the codebase and its version control system. In a static site, the content is typically stored in flat files and treated as any other component of the codebase. In a blog, for example, that means being able to have the actual posts stored in a GitHub repository and allowing your readers to file an issue when something is wrong or to add a correction with a pull request — how cool is that?

3) Security
Platforms like WordPress are used by millions of people around the world, meaning they’re common targets for hackers and malicious attacks — no way around it. Wherever there’s user input/authentication or multiple processes running code on every request, there’s a potential security hole to exploit. To be on top of the situation, site administrators need to keep patching their systems with security updates, constantly playing cat and mouse with attackers, a routine that may be overlooked by less experienced users.

Static sites keep it simple, since there’s not much to mess up when there’s only a web server serving plain HTML pages.

4) Less hassle with the server
Installing and maintaining the infrastructure required to run a dynamic site can be quite challenging, especially when multiple servers are involved or when something needs to be migrated. There’s packages, libraries, modules and frameworks with different versions and dependencies, there’s different web servers and database engines in different operating systems.

Sure, a static site generator is a software package with its dependencies as well, but that’s only relevant at build time, when the site is generated. Ultimately, the end result is a collection of HTML files that can be served anywhere, scaled and migrated as needed regardless of the server-side technologies. As for the site generation process, that can be done from an environment that you control locally and not necessarily on the web server that will run the site — heck, you can build an entire site on your laptop and push the result to the web when it’s done.

5) Traffic surges
Unexpected traffic peaks on a website can be a problem, especially when it relies intensively on database calls or heavy processing. Introducing caching layers such as Varnish or Memcached surely helps, but that ends up introducing more possible points of failure in the system.

A static site is generally better prepared for those situations, as serving static HTML pages consumes a very small amount of server resources.

Disadvantages of static (and potential solutions)
1) No real-time content
With a static site you lose the ability to have real-time data, such as indication about which stories have been trending for the past hour, or content that dynamically changes for each visitor, like a “recommended articles for you” kind of thing. Static is static and will be the same for everyone.

There’s not really a solution for this, I’m afraid. It’s the ultimate price to pay for using a static site, so it’s important that you ask yourself the question “how real-time does my site need to be?” — if its concept is based around delivering real-time information then perhaps a static site isn’t the right choice.

A dangerous solution: There’s an easy exit for whenever you’re faced with the challenge of dynamically updating content on a static site: “I can do it with JavaScript”. Doing processing on the client-side and appending the results to the page after it’s been served can be the right approach for some cases, but must not be seen as the magic solution that turns your static site into a full dynamic one. It can prevent some users from seeing the injected content, hurt your SEO and introduce other problems, potentially taking away the ease of mind and sense of control that comes with using a static site.

2) No user input
Adding user generated content to a static site is a bit of a challenge. Take a commenting system for a blog, for example — how do you process user comments and append them to a post using just plain HTML pages? You don’t.

Solution
You can’t get around this limitation per se and start processing data in your static pages, but you can find alternative solutions for individual cases. If you need to create a contact form, there are a lot of third-party services that will handle POST requests and email you the data, or export it to a format of your choice.

A commenting system is a slightly different animal though, since it involves not only processing user data but also appending it to a certain page. Platforms like Disqus are often used as a workaround for this and they do the job, but I’m personally not a big fan.

First of all, there’s what we discussed in point 1 — Disqus will append the comments to the page with JavaScript after it’s been served, so technically the comments don’t exist on your site until the JavaScript kicks in. Secondly, with this approach you contradict the premise of keeping the content together and versioned within a repository.

I’ve written about taking a different approach at a commenting system for Jekyll, which basically uses a server-side handler to process comments, add them to the repository and push to GitHub, keeping comments together with the rest of the site.

3) No admin UI
It’s incredibly easy to publish a blog post to WordPress or Medium. It can be done from anywhere, even from a phone, without having to install any additional software. That’s not really the case with a static site.

Typically, posts are composed in a text editor and formatted with a language like Markdown or Textile. To publish them, you’d need to regenerate the site (most engines have a watch functionality to detect file changes and regenerate the site automatically) and deploy the files to a server. It’s a bit hard to do all that on a phone sitting on the beach, isn’t it?

Solution
There are platforms that provide a web interface for creating, editing and deleting files directly on a GitHub repository, offering a WYSIWYG editor for Markdown to create a friendly composition interface. Examples are prose, a free and open source solution, or the more advanced CloudCannon, a commercial product that allows users to edit entire sections of a static site and see a live preview of the changes.

There are also mobile apps, available for both iOS and Android, that are a viable option for people interested in writing and publishing content on the move. The apps connect with GitHub and the changes are instantly pushed to the repository.

Another option is to set up a service that allows users to post to a static blog by email, which can be a viable solution for those that need to constantly write on the move. It works by listening for emails on a certain address and picking up the post meta data from the subject line, the images from the attachments and the post body from the message itself.

Conclusions
Switching to a static site can potentially save you time and money, as it requires less maintenance and less server resources. They’re reliable, scalable and can handle high volumes of traffic quite well.

In 2012, Obama’s presidential campaign raised $250M through a Jekyll website. In 2013, Healthcare.gov switched to a CMS-free approach using Jekyll as well. Static sites are powering huge projects and are definitely not limited to blogging. There’s also a strong open source community maintaining and pushing forward a wide range of engines with different flavours and features.

However, a static site is not some magical solution that will solve all the problems — they’re perfect for some cases, but terrible for others. It’s vital to understand how they work and what they can do in order to assess, on a per-project basis, whether or not they’re the right tool for the job.

As a blogger, it’s important to know that my site is user-friendly. Because if I’m losing visitors due to lousy navigation, lack of clarity, poor design, or content — then I’m losing money. This is why companies will pay good money for objective third-party reviews of their website.

To do this job from home, you will need to be internet savvy and speak fluent English. You will also need some basic equipment like a computer with a microphone, broadband internet connection, and an updated web browser. Most tests take between 5 – 25 minutes to complete and pay an average of $10 per test.

If you’d like to work from home testing websites, here are 11 sites to check out.

User Testing

Earn $10/$15 for 20 minutes of work. To become a tester – submit your email address and apply. Testers must take a sample test before receiving any assignments. This gig is open to the US and International residents alike who can receive payments via PayPal. Each test takes about 15 – 20 minutes.

User Testing is open to global residents who have an active PayPal account.
Enroll

Make money by testing out websites. To enroll in the program submit your email address, password, and pick your preferred method of testing (desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone). Once you’re fully registered, you’ll receive emails when assignments are ready for you. Assignments vary in nature, as does the pay. I did one job that took less than a minute, and it paid .10 cents. Payments are made via PayPal.

Open to global residents who have an active PayPal account.
StartUpLift

Earn money by answering questions about startup websites. Each company provides their website and assigns tasks that they would like you to complete and provide answers for. After you complete the assignment, you’ll share your thoughts in a written response. Each completed test pays $5.00, and payments are made weekly via PayPal.

TestingTime

Earn up to € 50 per study. Each study is conducted via Skype and usually takes 30 – 90 minutes of time. Once the study is completed, you’ll get paid within 5 – 10 days via PayPal. Testing Time is open to global residents who have an internet connection, and Skype installed on a computer.

TestingTime is open to global residents who have an active PayPal account.
TryMyUI

Earn $10 for 15 – 20 minutes of your time. To become part of the TryMyUI team first, sign up for an account. Next, you’ll need to take and pass a qualification test. The qualification test is a sample test that shows you understand the process and requirements. After you qualify, you’ll be sent test opportunities via email. Payments are made biweekly via PayPal.

Userfeel

Get paid $10 for providing your thoughts on various websites. To become a website tester, register for an account, and take a sample test. Once your sample is approved, you’ll start getting assignments by email. Payments are made via PayPal at the end of each week.

Userlytics

Make money for providing feedback on websites, applications, prototypes, concepts and more. To apply, register for an account, and then wait for an invite to complete an assignment. Once you’ve completed your assignment, you’ll be paid $10 per task via PayPal.

UserZoom

UserZoom is a company that conducts website usability tests for desktop and mobile platforms. Tests pay an average $5 to $10 depending on the complexity of the study. Most tests take between 10 to 20 minutes to complete, and payments are made via PayPal 10 to 14 business days after the completion of the study.

Validately

Validately hires testers to complete mobile and website tests for companies. Compensation varies: Complete a 5-minute test and get paid $5 bucks. Live tests where you speak via phone and share a screen with a moderator, pay a minimum of $25 for 30 minutes. Payments are made via PayPal within five business days of the test.

WhatUsersDo

Get paid to give feedback on clients’ websites. To get started, fill out the application and take a sample test. Once you’ve been approved, you’ll receive assignments via email. Each test takes about 20 minutes to complete and pays 8 £ or around $12.50 US dollars. Payments are made via PayPal on the 25th day of each month.

WhatUsersDo is open to global residents who have an active PayPal account.
uTest

uTest hires independent contractors for quality assurance testing for various software and hardware. According to their job posting on Dice, their customers includes brands like Google, Amazon, Netflix, and more. To get started, fill out their online application (takes approximately 10 minutes), take an audition test to showcase your tech skills, then wait for assignments to be sent to you via email. I wasn’t able to find out how much testers are paid, but the job listing on Dice says, “In 2016 alone, we paid out over $20 million to QA testers worldwide.”

uTest is open to global residents
Now if you’re anything like me, you’re multiplying how many tests you can complete in an hour and how much you’re going to make. But hold your horses! These opportunities are extremely popular! Statistically, there are fewer customers than testers, so don’t expect to be completing three tests every hour on the hour.

Here’s how to make the most of this work-at-home opportunity:

1. Sign up with as many website testing companies as possible.

2. Be sure that you’re taking advantage of practice and sample testing opportunities, as many companies will only allow you a couple of times to pass their test.

3. Always make sure to turn in your best possible work, as many companies rate their testers and those with higher scores tend to get more and better-paying gigs.

4. While you’re waiting for these companies to email you with test opportunities, be sure to add short tasks, focus groups, and digital earning tasks to your routine — this will ensure that you have a constant pipeline of work and income coming in.

And if you’re located outside of the U.S. — check out this post, it has a bunch of opportunities for global residents!

Looking for more gigs like this one? Then consider working from home as a Web Search Evaluator — this post will tell you all about it.

This page includes some affiliate links. Please be aware that we only promote advertising from companies that we feel we can legitimately recommend to our readers. Please see our disclosure policy for further information.

MAKING TECHNOLOGY WORK

Microsoft Azure

With Azure, you get the freedom to build and deploy wherever you want, using the tools, applications, and frameworks of your choice.

Dynamics 365

With intelligent business applications across CRM and ERP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 gives you choice. Start with just what you need to run your business—and delight your customers. And then add apps as your needs change.

SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online empower individuals, teams and organizations to intelligently discover, share, and collaborate on content from anywhere and on any device. It helps facilitate teamwork, automate business processes, create business applications, and build com

Power BI

Power BI transforms your company’s data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you.

SQL Server

Build intelligent, mission-critical applications using a scalable, hybrid database platform that has everything built in—from in-memory performance and advanced security to in-database analytics.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Whether you’re looking for compute power, database storage, content delivery or other functionality, AWS has the services to help you build sophisticated applications with increased flexibility, scalability

Project Online

Streamline project, resource, and portfolio management with Microsoft Project & Portfolio Management (PPM). Integrated planning tools help you keep track of projects and stay organized.

Technology is the first order of business for you…
and we make technology work for you.Technology is a great enabler of productivity, creativity, and effectiveness but only if it is fully adopted.

Move over LAMP. MEAN is the new kid on the block.

It’s what all the trendy startups are using. It’s fun. It’s hip. It’s new. MEAN is taking over the web development world. But how does the stack stack up?

What’s LAMP?

Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. The holy grail of web development for at least as long as I can remember. This stack represents the foundation of the web.

While its age may be showing, its maturity is strong. The LAMP stack can be altered to replace MySQL with MonogDB, and PHP with Python. The acronym defines a low level configuration for web applications.

What’s MEAN?

MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS and Node.js makes up the MEAN stack. A powerful JavaScript driven stack with diverse capabilities.

Comparatively to LAMP, the database layer is replaced completely with JSON storage using MongoDB. JSON is the native data language of JavaScript. While relatively young, the framework has a growing number of supporters.

This stack is basically a JavaScript lover’s dream.

Which to Choose?

As always, the answer is: it depends.

Both stacks have advantages and disadvantages. Which one to use depends on the type of web application to be built. Providing a blanket statement of superiority would be greatly oversimplifying software development.

Isn’t PHP Dying?

This has long been cried by the anti-PHP crowd. For years we’ve been hearing that PHP is on the way out. Yet PHP maintains a stronghold on the Internet. It powers an insanely high number of websites globally.

PHP has undergone major revamping through its recent major releases. PHP 7 is just around the corner, expected to bring along language and performance improvements.

Possessing a long history and maintaining backwards provides a disadvantage of innovativeness. Especially in comparison to the light development history of Node.JS. Node.JS however doesn’t offer the same level of maturity. Over time, libraries and frameworks will be built to further improve the infrastructure of Node.JS. Regardless, PHP isn’t going to die any time soon.

JavaScript on the Front, JavaScript on the Back

One common touted advantage of using JavaScript for both the server and the client is code reuse.

While it sounds good in theory, it’s rarely seen in practice. Separation of concerns is a very good thing. Keeping server and client codebases separate can have security benefits. It’s just not a common case to have to move a function from server to client.

Using JavaScript for both the front and back end however may make it easier for some teams to easily switch developing between the two. It creates a more homogeneous workflow. This is especially important when you have one or two full stack developers working on the application as a whole.

It can be quite a challenge to switch between using PHP or Python for the server, then having to use JavaScript and HTML for the client. If you only know JavaScript and nothing else (which could be the case for a new programmer), then MEAN is the easier choice.

If a MEAN stack makes your development life easier, then you should probably choose that.

End Users Could Break Your Website

It’s difficult to predict future behavior of consumers.

Ad blocking has become more commonplace as of recent years. Privacy has become an increasing concern. While most users have JavaScript enabled, some users do not. Some users disable JavaScript to better protect their privacy. Others don’t like unknown code to be executing on their machines.

Various browser extensions allow users to selectively choose which scripts they permit to run. And which they don’t. This may effectively break your web application if it’s dependent on JavaScript.

You might not need to cater for users with JavaScript disabled. Many web applications, like Facebook, are practically useless without JavaScript enabled.

Some users may even use client readers such as Pocket to circumvent visiting your website altogether. Considering today’s options for digesting content, it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense for a blog to be accessible only with JavaScript enabled.

Disabling JavaScript in your browser can make a lot of the web unusable. AdBlock has been known to break a few websites too. Some websites have countered the rise of AdBlock by neglecting or even banning that segment of users.

JavaScript certainly helps add a modern dimension to web apps. It might not even be feasible to cater for users with JavaScript disabled. Still, accessibility and compatibility is a factor to take into account. MEAN depends on JavaScript. If users disable JavaScript, they’ve killed your web app.

What might be uncommon today may become more common tomorrow. Utilizing lots of JavaScript on the client’s side may turn to backfire if they opt not to run it. The user’s browser is outside of your control.

JavaScript Slows Down the Browser

Speed is another concern.

If you’re developing for any non-first world country, then relying on a JavaScript heavy frontend is probably not the best choice. On older phone devices especially, performance can be slowed down to a crawl. Sometimes it can be cubersome to load even jQuery, let alone processing-heavy AngularJS for modulated views.

Wait, Isn’t Node.JS Super Fast?

Node.JS is incredibly quick. When optimized, so too is PHP.

Node.JS has an advantage of being event-driven (illustrated above). This allows many concurrent requests with less slowdown. Traditional Apache setups are multi-threaded and resource heavy. As a result, LAMP can be slow.

PHP’s speed can be dramatically enhanced through the use of Nginx, Lightspeed or optimizing Apache configuration. While Apache is multi-threaded in nature, Nginx is more similar to the event-driven nature of Node.JS.

For the most part, Apache can be replaced with Nginx in many LAMP based applications. However, an optimized setup requires additional complications and expertise. Considering how many existing scripts and virtual machines automate the setup process, this isn’t too much of a problem.

While Node.JS can be easily configured, setting up a well performing LAMP stack (or LNMP, replacing Apache with Nginx) can add a little extra time to configure.

These speed differences are likely not to become problematic until heavy load is experience. Most startups never live long enough for this to even be an issue. Scaling is a good problem to have. If you need to scale, then that means your startup is doing something right.

Both LAMP and MEAN virtual machines can be spun up really quickly for development, testing and even production. Node.JS has some advantages for future scaling. But that’s not to say that LAMP can’t scale.

Don’t Neglect the Client

What’s neglected in a lot of speed comparisons is the client side processing. Most servers can serve up pages relatively quickly – within fractions of a second.

Where users are left waiting is from loading up client-side resources like CSS, JavaScript, images and video. For speed improvements, developers should place most of their attention on the client side rather than the back end. A fraction of a second speed improvement is negligible when most websites take much longer than two seconds to load.

Especially on mobile devices, modern JavaScript intensive web applications can be slow. Web apps are cool, but sometimes you’re probably better off developing a native mobile app. To get high performance from mobile web apps, you generally need to cut back on the JavaScript libraries.

AngularJS, while bundled in the MEAN stack, is an independent JavaScript client side library that can easily integrate into web applications. Including LAMP based stacks. Adding more and more client side processing by including additional JavaScript libraries can significantly slow down an application. This slow down really has very little to do with the stack itself. Both LAMP and MEAN applications can become incredibly slow once lots of client side resources are added.

Further speed optimizations can be obtained through utilization of CDNs, lazy loading, resource minification and minimizing the total number of requests.

The Unfair “A”

There’s no direct replacement for AngularJS in the LAMP stack. MEAN cuts out the HTTP server (the Apache in LAMP) completely since Node.JS runs independently (though in a production environemnt you may very well add a HTTP server). AngularJS is also an independent framework that could be added to any LAMP stack.

In this sense, comparing LAMP to MEAN is unjust. MEAN includes a front end component, whereas LAMP refers to just the back end. LAMP refers more to low level, whereas MEAN is more high level. There’s no operating system reference in MEAN, though you’ll most likely borrow Linux from LAMP.

There’s no reason you couldn’t add a front end component to LAMP. In fact, most implementations do. At the very least jQuery is usually added, or sometimes Backbone.js. There’s nothing preventing you from using AngularJS on top of LAMP. Or replacing AngularJS in a MEAN stack. There are also many competing libraries to choose from (like React and Ember).

MEAN does have the advantage in that it’s more GUI-focused. The GUI is baked into the stack itself, instead of being left outside.

When Would I Use LAMP vs MEAN?

It probably wouldn’t make much sense to migrate an existing LAMP application to MEAN. But if I were starting a brand new UI-focused application, I’d probably opt for a MEAN (or maybe MEN, cutting out AngularJS and possibly replacing it with something else).

Whether or not I’d use MongoDB or MySQL would depend on the type of data being planned to store. I may very well set up both. Or if it were a really data heavy application that required quick searches, I may even add in ElasticSearch or Solr.

If all you need is a simple website, it’d be quite foolish to opt for MEAN. LAMP topped with a powerful CMS like WordPress or Drupal can meet the needs of many business websites. For most eCommerce businesses, there’s plenty of existing software to handle the job. MEAN should only be considered for tech-heavy businesses.

Too many times I’ve seen startups struggling with their software development because they’ve opted for new and cool over mature and stable. Just because you can do just about anything in LAMP/MEAN, doesn’t mean you should. You should use the best tool for the job. If you want to adopt a new technology, be prepared for potential debugging nightmares and a lot of reinventing the wheel.

Another thing to consider would be the team. PHP programmers are generally much more common. Subsequently, PHP programmers can be hired for lower costs than Node.JS programmers. If I were working with a team that knew PHP well, but wasn’t experienced with Node.JS, then it probably wouldn’t be worthwhile to teach the whole team a new development platform. Or vice versa. You need to stick with what you know.

If I were building a backend API, I’d probably almost always choose a LAMP based stack, opting for Python and perhaps MongoDB (and probably ditching Apache in place of Nginx). There are many REST libraries written to make your life easier.

A startup’s success is not determined by its stack
Although a lot of dogma exists in software development, there really isn’t any better or worse. Software developers tend to become emotionally attached to one platform over another as it requires an enormous amount of personal investment (in the form of time and effort) to master a platform. New developers may be fond of MEAN, whereas older developers are probably more likely to cling onto LAMP.

Deciding between LAMP and MEAN is really project specific. Depending on available skills, business constraints and application demands, one could be forgiven choosing either option.

What we need to keep in mind is that a startup’s success is not determined by its stack. What determines success is execution. Time spent between contemplating LAMP vs MEAN can usually be better spent elsewhere. Like, actually obtaining customers and figuring out what you need to build.

AngularJS removes the need to manage the DOM. This allows for pretty applications, but difficult for search engine parsing. If SEO is an important marketing channel for you, then utilizing AngularJS might not be such a great idea. Google will probably become better and add support for such web apps in the future, but right now we’re out of luck.

It Doesn’t Have to Be One Or The Other

Some applications you may have both stacks. You may have LAMP for the API, and MEAN for the GUI.

The technologies in each stack are not exclusive. You may use a relational database like MySQL or PostgreSQL, or a non-relational database like MongoDB or Cassandra.

You may choose to utilize JavaScript and Python. Or PHP. Or Go. Maybe even Erlang. Or one of hundreds of other programming languages that may suit your project better.

Your final stack may not neatly fit into an existing religious acronym. That’s perfectly okay too.

With the popularity and advancements in web technology, it is imperative for every business to have a website and one which is highly functional and visually attractive. The process through which a good website, mobile apps or other similar platforms are created is known as web development. One of the most integral aspects of web development is web programming that is achieved with the help of programming languages. Web development languages are the platforms through which instructions are communicated to a machine and actions are pursued.

In this article, we shall learn more about 1) web development and programming languages as well as 2) focus on the most popular programming languages in the world.

WEB DEVELOPMENT: AN INTRODUCTION

Web development is a term that is used to refer to the process of creating a website and can range from developing a single simple page to a series of complex pages. Web development encompasses several actions or practices and some of them include web design, content creation, programming, network security tasks as well as client side or server side scripting, etc. In the recent few years, web development has taken the definition of the creation of content management systems or CMS, which is the mid-step between the user and the database. In order to pursue web development as a profession, one of the most important things that you will need to consider is having expertise in programming languages.

WHAT ARE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES?

A programming language is used to control the actions of a machine. Such a language is a properly drafted or constructed language when it is designed in such a way that through it instructions can be communicated to a computer system. Ever since the invention of computers, thousands of programming languages have been created, and more are being created every year.

A programming language is generally split into two components that are the semantics and the syntax. Where on one hand the syntax is the form or type, the semantics are the meaning of that type or form. Every programming language is different; where on one hand, some may be marked by a specification documents, others may have a dominant implementation or a reference. A programming language thus broadly is a notation that helps to write programs that are identified as an algorithm.

Traits of a programming language
The features or characteristics of a programming language can be referred to as its traits. The following are the three main traits of such languages that you must know about:

Abstractions – Most of the programming languages have certain rules that help us define or mark the data structures as well as manipulate the way in which the commands are executed. These rules are referred to as abstractions. Every language needs to be supported by sufficient abstractions and this need is defined by the abstraction principle. The abstraction principle in some cases is derived as the recommendations given to a web programmer so that he/she makes the correct use of abstractions.
Function and target – When you make use of a programming language, then besides doing the writing work on your own, you also need the help of the computer system that performs the computation work or controls the algorithm. The computer also controls the external devices associated such as the printer, the robots, etc. Thus, the complete definition of a programming language includes a description or a machine or processor that has been idealized for that language. This is one reason why programming languages differ from human languages of interaction.
Expressive power – Languages are mostly classified by the computations that they are able to express. This very expressive power is yet another trait of programming languages and is an important one.
Factors to be considered when choosing a programming language
Since there are so many different types of programming languages, it can be difficult for a web developer to select which one to use and which one to leave. There are certain factors on the basis of a decision can be made, and they are given as follows:

Targeted platform – The first thing you need to decide is where the program will be run. Not all languages are capable of running on all kinds of platforms. For example, a program written in C language requires compilers to run on Windows and Linux based systems.
Language domain match – The language must be chosen on the basis of the problem domain that you have. One of the better ways to do so is by searching that language others in the same domain or industry are using or by trying to look for a code that resolves the issues that you may have.
Efficiency – The compilers that go well with the language you choose must be efficient so as to make the language perform fast.
Elasticity and Performance – The language you choose must be flexible enough to let you add more programs or features in it. Also, its overall performance must be to your suitability and liking.
Availability of libraries – There must be a library that is capable of solving all your problems with the language that you select for web development.
Project size – There are two types of programming’s: large and small. You must select a language that can support your cause and suits the project size well.
Expressiveness & Time to production – Make sure you pick that language that is highly expressive and the time taken to produce the programs or codes is not very bothersome to you.
Tool support – Buy a tool-oriented language that offers you many elements and ways to edit, control and work.
Evolution of Programming Languages

THE MOST POPULAR PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

The universe of programming languages is wide and knowing all or learning each one of them is neither practical nor possible. If you are a developer who is interested in learning the most useful and popular ones, then you must first know which ones of the thousands of languages to learn. Thankfully, there are certain websites and platforms that create lists of the top languages, according to their popularity. The list of the top 15 programming languages of this year are given below, and it is clear that JavaScript is the most popular followed closely by Java, Python, and others.

Top 15 programming languages in 2015
JavaScript
Java
Python
CSS
PHP
Ruby
C++
C
Shell
C#
Objective C
R
VimL
Go
Perl
Let’s learn about some of these top languages in detail.

1. JavaScript
JavaScript is one of the most popular and dynamic programming languages used for creating and developing websites. This language is capable of achieving several things including controlling the browser, editing content on a document that has been displayed, allowing client-side scripts to communicate with users and also asynchronous communication. It was developed by Netscape and borrows a lot of its syntax from C language. JavaScript is used very widely and effectively in creating desktop applications as well as for developing games.

One of the best things about JavaScript for you as a developer or a website owner is that this is one of the few programming languages that are accepted and supported by all the major browsers without the need of any compilers or plug-ins. It can also be worked with on platforms that are not web-based, for example-desktop widgets and PDF docs. This is a multi-paradigm language which means that it has a combination of features. Also, JavaScript supports functional and object-oriented programming styles.

The features of a language define the way it will work, the way it responds, how easy is its code and what it can achieve. The following are some of the main features of JavaScript programming language for your reference:

Structured – JavaScript is a highly structured language with a proper and planned syntax that has been derived from C. This language too has a function scoping by it lacks block scoping, unlike C. It too differentiates between statements and expressions, just like the fundamental C web programming platform.
Dynamic – The types in JavaScript are not related with variables but with values. This is a dynamic programming language that enables you to test the type of an object in many different ways. Also, this programming language is object-oriented where all the objects are associative arrays.
Functional – All functions in JavaScript are objects and are all first-class. They are associated with their own functions as well as characteristics. For example, a function within a function is called a nested function whereas this language also supports anonymous function.
2. Java
Java is yet another highly popular and widely used language that you can consider for web development. This language is an object-oriented, class-based and concurrent language that was developed by Sun Microsystems in the 1990s. Since then, the language continues to be the most in-demand language that also acts as a standard platform for enterprises and several mobile and games developers across the world. The app has been designed in such a way that it works across several types of platforms. This means that if a program is written on Mac Operating system then it can also run on Windows based operating systems.

Java, when it was designed originally, was developed for interactive television, but the developers realized that this language and technology was way too forward for this industry. It was only later that it was incorporated into the use it serves today.

Every language is created with a certain mission, goal or objective in mind. The following are the 5 major principles or goals that were kept in mind during the creation of this language:

It must be a secure and robust programming language
It must be an object-oriented, simple language which becomes familiar soon.
It must be capable of being implemented and executed with high performance.
It must be threaded, dynamic and interpreted.
It must be portable and architecture-neutral.
3. Python
Python is a highly used and all-purpose programming language which is dynamic in nature. Being dynamic in nature means that you as a developer can write and run the code without the need of a compiler. The design of the language is such that it supports code readability which means that its syntax is such that only a few lines of codes are needed to express a point or a concept. This concept of code readability is also possible in the case of Java and C++, etc. This is a high-level or advanced language that is considered easy for beginners to understand and learn.

Some of the apps that are powered by Python are Rdio, Instagram, and Pinterest. Besides this, some other web platforms that are supported by Python are Django, Google, NASA, and Yahoo, etc. Some of the other features of this language include automatic memory management, large library, dynamic type system and support of many paradigms.

Python works on a core philosophy and follows its main principles in all seriousness. The language was designed with the aim of making it highly extensible. This means that the language can easily be incorporated or embedded in existing applications. The goal of the developers of this language was to make it fun to use one. The developers worked on the language in such a way that it could reduce upon premature optimization. Here’s a look at some of the principles that have been summarized for you:

Readability is important
Complex is better than complicated-
Beautiful is better than ugly
Simple is better than complex
Explicit is better than implicit
4. CSS
CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is rather a markup language. When paired with HTML, CSS allow a developer to decide and define how a web page or a website will eventually look or how it will appear to the visitors of the web platform. Some of the elements which CSS has an impact on include font size, font style, the overall layout, the colors and other design elements. This is a markup language that can be applied to several types of documents including Plain XML documents, SVG documents as well as XUL documents. For most websites across the world, CSS is the platform to opt for if they need help to create visually attractive webpages and finds use not just in the creation of web applications but also mobile apps.

The language’s syntax is pretty similar to that of HTML and XHTML, which work well in synchronization and combination of one another. The Style sheets included in CSS consist of a selector and a declarator. The simple syntax of the language uses several English language words to define the styling properties.

5. PHP
The term ‘PHP’ is used to define PHP Hypertext Processor language that is a free server-side scripting language that has been designed for not just web development but also as a general-purpose programming platform. This is a widely used language that was created in the year 2004 and now powers over 200 million websites worldwide. Some popular examples of websites powered by this platform include Facebook, WordPress, and Digg.com.

PHP is an interpreted script language which means that it is usually processed by an interpreter. For this reason, the language is most suitable for server-side programming that have server tasks being repeatedly performed when the website development process is on.

The following are some more points that shall help you understand the language better:

PHP is an open source language and fast prototyping language.
This language is compatible with UNIX based OS as well as Windows OS.
Some industries where PHP is mostly used include startup businesses, advertising apps, and small software organizations as well as media agencies.
The language can be embedded in HTML directly.
6. Ruby
Developed in the year 1993, Ruby is a dynamic programming language that is used for the creation or programming of mobile apps and websites. The language successfully balances imperative programming with functional programming and is a highly scalable language. This open source platform is not only simple to understand but also easy to write. But if you are a developer who wants to learn Ruby, then you will also have to equip yourself with the knowledge of Ruby on Rails or Rails which is another framework which can help you make it interesting to deal with Ruby. For those who are interested in creating small business software and for those who are into the field of creative designing, Ruby is the perfect programming language.

During its development, the idea was to come up with a language that was more productive in terms of programming and has a concise and simple code. Ruby is mostly used in the web servers where there is a lot of web traffic. Some examples of platforms that make use of this programming language include Hulu, Twitter, and Scribd, etc.

7. C++
C++ is a general purpose, well compiled and case sensitive web programming language that is not only imperative but also offers facilities for low-level memory manipulation. Since the language makes use of both low-level features as well as the feature of high-level languages, it is considered as a middle-level language. This language was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in the year 1979 and was later enhanced and renamed in 1983. Since C++ is an object oriented language, it supports the 4 principles of object oriented development including polymorphism, encapsulation, inheritance, and data hiding.

C++ is similar to C language in a lot of ways and is in fact the superset of C. This means that any program of C language is a program of C++ programming language. The language has many technical details, but the key to learning this language for you is not to get lost in these details but rather concentrate on its concepts.

Like any other language, this language too based on a philosophy and has certain elements that make it what it really is. C++ consists of three important parts, and they are given as follows:

The standard library of C++ is capable of giving a rich combination and gamut of features such as strings and manipulating sets, etc.
The standard template library or STL is capable of giving a rich set of methods manipulating data structures and other elements.
The core C++ language has the capability of giving the building elements like literals, data types, and variables.
8. C Language
C is another general-purpose and imperative programming language which was developed way back in the 70s and is similar to C++ language. This language is known to be the most widely used programming platform that offers building elements for other languages like C++, Python, Java and others. These languages borrow features either directly or indirectly from it, and some of these include control structures, overall syntax, and standard libraries. This is the reason why if you want to learn programming, it is advisable that you learn C and C++ first and then move onto the others after strengthening your foundation. Some of the features that this language supports include static type system, lexical variable scope, recursion and structured programming.

The following are some of the points which shall help you understand the overall design of C language:

C is a procedural or imperative language
The language was designed in such a way that can be easily compiled by making use of a simple compiler.
The language was designed to offer a low-level access to memory.
It was designed in a way that it should need minimum possible run-time support and encourages cross-platform programming.